Implementation of environmental education curriculum has a strong power to connect people to the natural world and foster an appreciation for nature. Motion-triggered cameras are a popular method of surveying biodiversity (Steenweg et al., 2016), which is especially relevant in an age where global biodiversity is in decline due to a variety of factors (climate change, habitat destruction, over-harvesting, poaching, etc). Camera trap technology is increasingly accessible and affordable, with people of many different backgrounds able to experiment with its use (Brown & Gehrt, 2009). One lesson I developed, called the "Issues in Biodiversity" (IBD) project, “Selfies with Citizens: Remote Cameras at Tettegouche State Park”, sought to formalize a curriculum for a trail camera workshop; directed at members of the public of all ages. I have been experimenting with trail cameras for years and using them in programs (see Image 2), although I had never formalized a lesson plan. It was rewarding to finally have a product that could be handed to other organizations and instructors to replicate. 

In a culminating project called the "Community Leadership Challenge" (CLC) project,  “A Window to the Wild: Remote Camera Workshop for Gathering Partners", my goal was to take the previous IBD lesson and adapt it to a different audience & venue. I connected with Andrea Lorek Strauss who is an Extension Educator of the department of Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Education at the University of Minnesota Extension. Andrea was putting together a conference for the "Friends of Minnesota’s Natural Resources” which was comprised of mostly adult learners who were either involved in Master Naturalist classes or had volunteered on natural resource projects. My CLC took place on May 15th, 2021. I led a 3-hour in-person field trip and had a total of four adult participants.

I felt that all four students gained knowledge about wildlife tracking and gained confidence in setting and checking a remote camera.  I know that the workshop was a success because each of the four participants reached out to me individually via email following the program. One student wrote, “Thank you so much for a fun and informative field trip. Not only did I learn some good tips about using trail cameras, but you also pointed out looking for signs of presence or activity of wildlife - I suggest this for a future Gathering Partners field trip!” (R. Bumann, personal communication, May 26th, 2021). I also received a follow-up request from the group for a peer-reviewed article about monitoring pollinators with trail cameras (H. Einess, personal communication, May 26th, 2021). Furthermore, I was able to see that members of the group accessed the shared google drive folder link that I sent to trail camera images and video from the workshop. I learned that the pre and post-course whiteboard assessment that I had planned did not accurately capture the high-level discussion that the group and I had during the experience. In the future, I would consider recording discussions via an audio or video device. 

With social media, artists and organizations can control their distribution of messaging in the promotion of conservation education and action. One form of visual media employed by conservation photographers is the use of the social media platform Instagram. According to Wang et al. (2020), Instagram has established itself among other top platforms for amateur and professional photographers to share their work. The account holder can post about conservation research, monitoring, education, outreach, or other causes, made relatable to the audience through eye-catching pictures and videos. Through these posts, the artist’s or organization’s followers can engage with the content and establish a discussion (Waters et al., 2009). Additionally, social media provides insights into the public perception of wildlife issues. These web-based platforms can be used as a substitute for traditional methods of gaining information such as surveys or polls (Sullivan Robinson & Littnan, 2019).

In the summer of 2020, I had the opportunity to work with four of my peers to create a product in support of Irbis Mongolia, an international non-profit organization and "EE" partner of Project Dragonfly. The resulting project was entitled, "Conservation Campaign", in which the main focus was the creation of a sample organization website and establishing a social media presence through the development of an Instagram account. We reached out to professional photographers to donate images to the cause as well as past students who had images of their EE experience working directly with Irbis Mongolia. It was challenging to work with an international partner as remote as Irbis, because often their team was in wilderness areas, far away from the internet or phone service. My team members overcame this hurdle by reaching out to partners of Irbis and faculty who knew the organization's goals and operations well. We felt proud to stand by the content we created for Irbis and knew that when they had time to use the tools we made, it would help them advance their mission. 

As an emerging conservation photographer, early on I struggled to find best practices in designing my own Instagram posts focused on conservation issues. The content that I originally posted to Instagram relied heavily on trial and error as well as mirroring techniques that I noticed, employed by prominent conservation photographers. I was interested in taking a closer look to see what I could learn from established conservation photographers' use of the platform and the type of content they post; resulting in a project called the "Inquiry Action Project" (which was IAP #2). The use of Instagram to advocate for conservation issues is a relatively new practice and a literature review reveals a general lack of study in regards to best practices to maximize engagement with social media posts specifically under the conservation photography umbrella. I identified the key elements of conservation photography posts on Instagram by established professionals in the field. I discovered different strategies that can be best employed in creating social media posts that engage and facilitate learning, discussion, and action around conservation issues.  My action component of this project included an infographic as a best practices guide for budding conservation photographers.

I learned that conservation photographers posted similar content to one another and utilized similar tactics to reach audiences, regardless of their influencer status (number of followers). Completing this project gave me a sense of empowerment that I hope to translate to other budding conservation photographers. Seeing that the number of followers did not change the type of tactics used to connect audiences with conservation issues/initiatives was encouraging and supports the thought that anyone can contribute to this work. Since the project I have been more confident in my content creation on social media and have used insights from this IAP to develop more informative posts that 1) identify threats to biodiversity 2) demonstrate interdisciplinary collaboration and 3) elicit a call to action. 

To connect scientists, researchers, and land managers to the public, I wanted to understand more about how images are used in real-world science. I explored this in a variety of ways. I analyzed an existing dataset of trail camera images (see Image 4) located at carnivore monitoring stations in Carlton County, MN in another "Inquiry Action Project" (which was IAP #1). I was interested in trying my hand at some trail camera dataset statistical analysis and seeing what insights it could offer a small county land department, for which I worked as a forestry/wildlife technician for three years. Over the course of two years, 10 sites hosted trail cameras on land managed by the Carlton County Land Department (CCLD). The protocol was developed by a branch of the University of Minnesota, the Natural Resource Research Institute (NRRI). The data collected on the County sites were lumped into a larger study by the NRRI of the region to yield insights to carnivore assemblages. I met with Michael Joyce, a wildlife ecologist at NRRI, and asked him what sorts of questions they had not answered with their data analysis. 

My initial direction of this project was to compare the activity patterns of different carnivore species detected. I found that the challenge of learning a new programming language and statistical analysis tool, “program R”, proved to be too difficult given the time constraints of the course. Additionally, I realized that there were not enough occurrences of certain species to yield statistical significance in their activity pattern overlaps. Through conversations with Michael, I decided to adapt my focus and instead compare the “Shannon Diversity Index” of each host site, taking into account all of the species detected on camera, not just the carnivores. This proved to be a valuable exercise for me, giving me real-world experience analyzing trail camera data and practicing the computation of species richness, abundance, and diversity. I also gained skills in presenting and summarizing these findings in a way that the CCLD could use in the future to inform their land management practices.  

I found this study most valuable in its ability to connect two entities that could benefit from developing a lasting working relationship; one a wildlife research organization, NRRI, and the other a local county land management agency, the CCLD. I had a recent conversation with the CCLD forester, Mark Westphal, who informed me that these two organizations continue to collaborate on similar projects to this day, more than two years later (M. Westphal, personal communication, June 17th, 2021). The final IAP report was shared with both entities. For the CCLD, this project showed an example of how its land base could contribute to valuable wildlife science. For the NRRI, the project served as a pilot for recruiting new trail camera hosts on a new land base.


Image 4: Trail camera images from the CCLD carnivore monitoring sites. A road-kill deer leg is hung from a tree in the center of the frame. From top left to bottom right: bobcat, fisher, red fox, and coyote. 

In the fall of 2021, I had a conversation with Michael Joyce, a wildlife ecologist at the Natural Resource Research Institute who mentioned that he relies mainly on word of mouth and articles featuring his research to recruit trail camera volunteer data (M. Joyce, personal communication, 9/08/2021). He had this to say about his fisher den box project: “I maybe got a dozen or so observations from folks who reached out via email” following a short article about his research effort in the February 2019 issue of the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer Magazine (M. Joyce, personal communication, 9/08/2021). While this is encouraging, more contributors means better data; it will yield more statistical significance in the analysis phase. To provide Michael with solid recommendations for improving his volunteer recruitment effort, I set off to ask other successful projects how they did it.  For my third Inquiry Action Project (IAP #3), I chose to compare citizen science trail camera volunteer strategies (see Image 5) to see what insights I could offer. 

My biggest challenge with this investigation was the difficulty of discovering projects that utilize trail camera volunteers and also finding a contact person with a working email address. However, I successfully received feedback from 12 out of 25 researchers who completed the form. The platform eMammal proved to be a very helpful site to discover these types of programs. I learned from this experience that designing simple and easy-to-fill-out surveys may improve the response rate. I gained skills in survey design and in coordinating and compiling survey data using the Google Forms platform. An additional benefit was establishing a connection with many new researchers and organizations, which has expanded my professional network for future opportunities. 



Image 5: My remotely triggered camera captures this scene of two turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) at a recently harvested white-tail deer (Odocoileus virginianus) offal pile. Images like this are captured by citizen science volunteers for Ellen Candler's "Offal Wildlife Watching" project. 

In the state of Minnesota, there are over 2,000 native wildlife species and an estimated 16 percent of those have been categorized as Species in Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) (MNDNR, 2016). In another assignment called the "Authorship Leadership Challenge" (ALC) I wrote and applied for grant funding from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council to procure images for a museum-style exhibit at Tettegouche State Park. This project sought to photographically depict the wildlife habitat needs of my community. I proposed to use the funds from this “individual artist grant” to continue my work as a photojournalist; educating Minnesotans about the amazing ecological world around us and our place in it. Specifically, this project would culminate in an art showing at the Tettegouche State Park Visitor’s Center. A portion of the grant funds was for procuring framed images for the in-person gallery. Other dollars would go to the creation of “story cards” in which an interpretive sign accompanied each image to 1) tell the story of the image itself and 2) give insights into the conservation status of the animal or landscape. 

Ultimately, the grant I wrote was not selected. I asked for feedback from the reviewers and learned some valuable lessons. One of which is to read the fine print closely when it comes to eligibility of funds; because it turned out that the panel had concerns over my request to allocate grant funds for equipment (a drone) and training to operate it. Another suggestion from the review team was for me to showcase images of my framed and matted art pieces as they would hang in a gallery; which may offer the judges a better representation of how the art would appear in person (my portfolio was composed of digital files). The strengths of my application were that I presented alternatives to the in-person show due to Covid, the quality of my images themselves, and “particularly in how these funds can help [me] grow as a professional artist, taking next steps to present [my] work” (H. Hackett-Rich, personal communication, April 13th, 2021). 

I decided to self-fund the project and proceeded by acquiring the art and developing the interpretive signage. I applied and was selected by a panel of judges for a show at the park, securing my spot. The gallery was installed in June 2021 and is still there as of October 2021 (See Image 7). I feel that the art has revealed to the community the amazing resiliency and adaptability of the land, but also its conservation needs. I spent time in the lobby and was able to observe as people interacted with the art and formed dialogues between one another. I was also able to introduce myself on occasion as the photographer and engaged several of the art viewers in conversations. As I continue my work as a visual storyteller, I hope that my images continue to dispel fears or myths that people may be holding on to or at least serve as a way for people to find appreciation for the natural world through art. 

Inspired by my Project Dragonfly coursework, I have taken several steps (the two linked projects below) to expand the reach of my efforts to educate and recruit future conservation photographers and citizen scientists to the field. In December of 2020, I worked with Nicole Pokorney, Extension Educator for the Center for Youth Development as a panelist in an educational webinar series. The result was a "Deep Dive Series Webinar" in which 4-H members and their families chose from a list of topics to attend. Participants tuned in and I gave an introduction to nature photography, conservation photojournalism, and some tips for beginners. Based on the questions and engagement, I would say I was successful in generating excitement for the field of conservation photography. 

In August of 2021, I had another opportunity for outreach when I was approached by a podcast host for the University of Minnesota's "Explore, Teach, Conserve". I was interviewed and recorded by Nathan Meyer and the resulting episode was entitled, “Camera Trap Photography” (click Image 6 below). In the podcast I was able to spread the word about camera trapping and how citizen scientists could get involved. I shared tips and tricks for beginners and offered real-world examples of trail camera projects in my local community to which volunteers could contribute.